The Mending Project is an interactive conceptual installation using very simple elements — thread, color, sewing — as points of departure for gaining insights into the relationships among self, other and immediate surroundings. It also constitutes an act of sharing between the host and a stranger. Visitors initially see a long table, two chairs and a wall of colorful cone-shaped spools of thread. During museum hours, a host is seated at the table, to which visitors can bring various damaged textile articles, choose the color of thread they wish, and watch as the host mends the article. The mended article, with thread ends still attached, is then placed on the table along with previously mended items.

These acts of mending take on emotional value as well, depending on how personal the damaged item is, e.g., a favorite shirt vs. an old but little-used tablecloth. This emotional mending is marked by the use of thread which is not the color of the fabric around it, and often colorfully at odds with that fabric, as though to commemorate the repair. Unlike a tailor, who will try to hide the fact that the fabric was once damaged, the mending in this work is done with the idea of celebrating the repair, as if to say, “Something good was done here, a gift was given, this fabric is even better than before.”